"I left the washing machine half-done": the neighbors of the sinkhole will not return home before Saturday

BarcelonaThe residents of the 93 apartments in the Sant Gervasi - la Bonanova neighborhood, evacuated this Tuesday due to the sinkhole caused by the works on line 9 of the metro, will have to remain away from home for a few more days. In statements to journalists, the director general of Mobility Infrastructure of the Department of Territory, Ramon Ramírez, explained that the stability of the buildings must be assessed for three more days. This means that it will not be until Saturday morning that it can be determined whether residents will begin to return to the eight blocks.

During the past night, the work to refill the sinkhole – eight meters in diameter and four meters deep – which opened up this Tuesday morning, has been completed, and since early this morning, technicians and firefighters have been inspecting the buildings again to check their condition. Ramírez explained, however, that "continuous monitoring" is necessary to verify that the ground has stabilized and that access to the eight affected blocks can be regained without problems.

As he detailed, due to the thermal changes between day and night, it is necessary to check "the behavior of the ground day by day and at the same hours as the sinkhole occurred". For this reason, he said, it will not be until Saturday morning that firefighters and technicians will be able to assess whether a "staggered return" of residents to their homes can be made. In parallel to the ground monitoring over these three days, all affected apartments will be inspected to check for serious pathologies resulting from the sinkhole.

The residents – who also had an informational meeting this morning at the Vil·la Florida Civic Center – will have to find an alternative or go to the Barcelona Emergency and Social Emergencies Center (CUESB) to get through the next few days. Last night, everyone had found a place to stay, and only two people had to use the municipal emergency services. A firefighter tent has also been set up in Frederic Soler square to assist residents who need it 24 hours a day.

This Wednesday, many residents were taking advantage of the opportunity to re-enter their homes or premises to collect belongings. "Yesterday I had to pack my bag in ten minutes. I left with the washing machine half done," explains Silvia, who is carrying a large suitcase with things to go to her parents' house while she waits to see if she can return home next week. Similar scenes are being witnessed in other affected apartments and premises.

For example, at the Sant Gervasi restaurant, where Fina explains that the firefighters ordered them to close when they still had some clients in the middle of lunch. "They had to finish in a hurry. And we have all the glasses and plates in the sink as they were left," she says. On the next-door staircase, the landscape architecture studio and construction company Verveine had a little more room to react. First, they sealed off the garden – which borders the courtyard of the pizzeria where the sinkhole occurred – and they already saw that it could escalate. "We prepared a withdrawal operation, looking at the logistical scope of how we could work from outside the studio," explains Lina Seguró Mendlewicz, who points out that they have several projects to deliver before summer.

Now that they know they will be out of their homes for at least three days, the neighbors are looking at how to organize themselves. Some explain that they will stay at relatives' and friends' houses, others are going to their second homes to await news, and some, like Carla – who left home on Tuesday with her turtle and little else – will continue in a hotel. They have been summoned again on Saturday at noon to find out if they can return to their apartment.

Previous incidents

Regarding the complaints about the appearance of cracks in the street and buildings weeks before this Tuesday's sinkhole, the director of Projects for the Department of Territory, Begoña Castiblanque, emphasized that they have an established protocol and analyze all incidents that reach them. In this case, she explained that they had received some that were being analyzed, but there were not many from the area where the sinkhole eventually occurred.

Castiblanque also explained that regarding the subsoil material, there is indeed a change where the ground goes from being predominantly granite to slate, but she stressed that it is a few meters further back from where the sinkhole occurred.